_Congratulations on having received the awards! Would you say how you feel, on behalf of the Huancayo Church members?
“To be honest, I’m a little bewildered. I came to Korea to attend the General Assembly, without knowing that there would be an awards ceremony. Then unexpectedly I received such a great blessing here. The Huancayo members don’t know it yet. They will be very glad to hear this news, but at the same time they will feel embarrassed as well because they have never thought about receiving an award. They are always thankful for just being able to do the work of Mother.”

_Since you were completely unaware of it, you must have felt so real when you received the awards.

ⓒ 2011 WATV

“I am just so thankful for the awards. However, it cannot be our goal in the gospel to receive an award itself. If we do good to receive an award, we may do it pretentiously. Of course, we have to run toward our heavenly rewards. However, we are really satisfied if we can only please Mother and relieve Mother’s burden of suffering even just for a while; that’s enough for us. Since the members feel the love of Mother and become willing, they participate in preaching the gospel naturally and voluntarily.”

_What kind of city is Huancayo?
“Huancayo is a large city which is seven hours away by car from Lima, the capital city of Peru, but it is the nearest city from Lima. Some members of the Lima Church, whose hometown is Huancayo, first sowed the seed of the gospel there. I was sent to Huancayo in May, 2007, when a Church was officially established there. Since we did not produce many good results for about three years, the gospel work of the Huancayo Church was slow in progress, compared with that of other Churches in Peru. Recently, however, we achieved great results for the gospel. The results of the recent one year were greater than those of the past three years. This is how I feel: Water boils when it reaches a certain temperature, doesn’t it? It takes quite some time for the water to reach the boiling point, but once it reaches its boiling point, it starts to boil instantaneously. Likewise, although the gospel in Huancayo seemed to progress slowly in the beginning, Father and Mother finally granted us a great blessing.”

_How did you feel when you first went to Huancayo?
“The members were so pure like clean white paper. I saw the endless potential, and at the same time I deeply felt the responsibility as a prophet, because no matter what kind of example I set for them and how I would act, it would be drawn on their hearts like white papers as it was. So I tried to show them Mother’s love and sacrifice as much


_The period during which the gospel showed slow progress was the time taken for the members to understand Mother’s love, wasn’t it?

ⓒ 2011 WATV

“Love is something that can only be felt through the heart and action, not through knowledge. It may take some time for us to feel God’s love in our hearts. As for students, they become absorbed in their studies while taking control of their lives by themselves if we plant a dream and vision in their hearts rather than just telling them to study hard. It is the same with the gospel. Rather than only checking results for the gospel, I wanted to give the members a dream and vision for the gospel so that they would be able to feel God’s love and do the work of the gospel by themselves, though it would take quite some time for them to do so. Now they are carrying out the gospel work freely but systematically, with the spirit of a master.”

_What is the dream or vision you wanted to plant in their hearts? “The work of God is not given to anyone. So, it was important for us to realize the value of the blessing we received from God and then to understand that the reason why God had chosen us before the creation of the world was to allow us to play a pivotal role in spreading the gospel with even greater faith than that of the saints of the early Church. When we studied the Bible, we did not just end up studying it, but through it we tried to have a greater and wider faith, breaking the limitations of thought in our minds. You know Alexander the Great who conquered a large amount of territory from Macedonia to India in just eight years. Through him we saw a vision. ‘Let us evangelize the whole continent of South America in a short period of time, as spiritual Alexanders!’ This is the current vision of our members.”

_Has their vision come true now?
“Within just three months in the first half of 2010, God blessed us to produce great gospel results which would usually take about a year. So we formed a short-term mission team—our first mission team—at the end of July, thinking that the rest of the year was extra time and that it would be better to use it for another region which was in need of gospel workers. Our first mission destination was Asuncion, Paraguay. Within a month, we led 1,300 souls there to God, together with the short-term mission team from Korea. During the same period of time, some young adult members went to Lapas, Bolivia, and bore 400 fruits within two weeks. In October, four members started to manage a branch Church in Cochabamba, Bolivia, and now we go on a short-term mission trip there every month. At that time, there were only a few members in Cochabamba, but now the number of the members there reaches over 100.”

_Their faith must have grown so much.

ⓒ 2011 WATV

“The mission place is quite far from our Zion. It takes about 45 hours to get to Cochabamba by bus. The bus ride alone takes a whole week, and we need at least three weeks for a mission trip. What was worse, most of the members were in difficult financial circumstances. So, it was not so easy for them to go on a mission trip. However, they went, being moved by the Holy Spirit, and led hundreds of souls to God. Since they experienced the power of Mother, their faith grew very quickly. ‘It is more blessed to give love than to receive.’ This teaching of Mother really touched my heart.”

_What is the relationship between the short-term overseas mission and Mother’s teaching—“It is more blessed to give love than to receive”?
“In fact, we found it hard to carry out the gospel work in Huancayo for a few months after we started to go on a short-term mission trip, because there were not many gospel workers in the Huancayo Church, either. However, the short-term mission volunteers returned as great gospel workers and supported the gospel in Huancayo a lot more than before. Though their beginning seemed weak and humble, so prosperous was their future.”

_Do you mean that though you seem to be at a loss in the beginning stage, there is no loss at all in the end?
“Yes. Let me give you an example. In ancient times when people lived by hunting and gathering food, they just thought about food needed for the day, so they would hunt and gather their food on a daily basis. As time changed, an agricultural society started. Those who had been accustomed to hunting and gathering food laughed at farmers who sowed seeds, because they could not see immediate fruit. Later on, however, they were surprised to see the farmers harvest tremendous amount of crops at once. Though a seed is slow to germinate and bear fruit, it surely brings forth much fruit.”

_What do you think is the decisive factor for you to receive today’s blessing?
“That is Mother’s love. It can’t be achieved by any other means. The members, who did not know what love is, now realize Mother’s love and think so much of Mother. With a single-hearted desire to please Mother, they are carrying out the gospel work. Their each and every action is a gesture of love toward Mother. Father must also have been pleased with this and blessed them. We always feel that Mother trusts us and loves us. And we believe that God has a great plan for the Huancayo Church to play an important role in accomplishing the gospel, and that there must be great blessings which God has prepared for us. We already feel and experience it. So, none of us become exhausted, but we all work harder for the gospel.”

_The members’ love and faith towards Mother seem very strong.
“They really love Mother so much that I feel proud of them for that. Um. . . what should I say? I can’t express it in words. I can just say that they proclaim Mother so boldly enough to surprise and amaze me. They have no fear, and I even wonder where such great faith comes from. They have an earnestness and conviction that nothing is possible without Mother and that everything is fulfilled only through Mother. I believe that this is what Father really wants. Since Father led us to Mother, the gospel in this age is to be accomplished only through Mother.”

_What is the Huancayo Church’s vision for the gospel from now on?
“The Cochabamba Church in Bolivia has settled down to some degree. So we are now planning to preach the gospel in Argentina. Actually, our goal is eventually to go to Spain and Italy, beyond South America. Our concerns already go beyond Huancayo. Since we have experienced the power of Mother through the short-term missions, we believe that preaching overseas is the mission we have to do. We can say that the Huancayo Church serves as a kind of matrix; it plays the role of training gospel workers and supporting the regions that need helping hands.”

_You are dreaming of a great world of the gospel.
“Since the members have a bigger dream and vision, I am not just satisfied with the current status. As I have said earlier, the mission of the Huancayo Church is to become a ‘spiritual Alexander.’ ”

_Is there anything else you would like to say before we finish up?
“I have nothing more to say except this: Everything starts with Mother. The gospel begins with Mother and ends with Mother. Our goal is not just to keep the Sabbath and the Passover. Through keeping them, we must restore Mother’s love. Only then will we be able to enter the kingdom of heaven. For this, I should faithfully perform the role of a mediator by showing the members the perfect example of Mother’s love, so that they can become true children of Mother who have Mother’s love in their hearts and eagerly yearn for Her. We have many goals for the gospel, but our greatest goal is to fill our hearts with the love of Father and Mother.”